Reviews

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Review

Farewell, Kill Streak system. Back when you were young and innovative you helped elevate Call of Duty to juggernaut status, but it's high time you received an upgrade. Surprisingly, it turns out that all that Black Ops 2 needed to make CoD multiplayer feel fresh and reinvigorated, if not reinvented and free of frustration, was a seemingly minor tweak. Meet the Score Streak system, a new well-balanced reward system that makes me feel like an action hero for helping my teammates rather than exclusively celebrating brute-force killing power. Combined with a much more flexible character customization system, Score Streaks help this year's multiplayer feel like more than just another rehash.

The shift to Score Streaks is absolutely noticeable and a terrific boost.

As the name indicates, you no longer unlock support actions like UAVs or air strikes with three-, five-, and seven-kill streaks. Now, those rewards are earned by scoring points via kills, assists, capturing an objective, successfully defending an objective, and more. For objective-based gamers like me who prefer to help others rather than go for lone-wolf sprees, the shift is absolutely noticeable and a terrific boost. In past CoD games, I would expect to get one or two Kill Streak awards per objective match because I focused so intently on team goals instead of my place on the leaderboards.

Finally, Recognition

In Black Ops 2 I'm rewarded with more support actions than ever before, and it feels good to finally get a few bombs to drop as a pat on the back for a job well done. Critically, though, it doesn't appear as if this shift has led to a significant increase in support actions per match, because points are doled out in a measured, balanced way that still makes unlocking the big bad streaks feel tough.

An extra perk or a third accessory? Options!

The 10-item limit means making tough choices.

I also like how Treyarch has tweaked multiplayer loadouts with the new Pick 10 system. As the name indicates, you can outfit your character with a grand total of 10 items, including primary and secondary weapons, accessories, perks, grenades, and equipment. That's further mixed up with the use of Wild Cards, which allow you to hyper-specialize. As you can imagine, the 10-item limit means making tough choices, but it also leads to some unique combinations and some truly custom characters like my Primary Gunfighter Wild Card build.

Where The Wild Things Are

That card opens up a third accessory slot for my primary weapon and enables me to have a sight, FMJ bullets, and a quickdraw handle on my assault rifle. The drawback is that I'm taking up five of my Pick 10 slots with my primary weapon alone (including its three accessories and the Primary Gunfighter Wild Card), so I've given up any accessories on my secondary weapon, a perk, and a tactical grenade. This kind of freedom to give and take is a more than welcome addition.

Beware of the bullet-dodging, knife wielding assassins.

Your character is instantly transformed into a lightning-fast ninja.

Such freedom, however, has a drawback: the potential for imbalances. Treyarch says it has a bazillion multiplayer matches worth of data that drove its design decisions and make Black Ops 2 balanced. My eyes, seeing the many players who willingly bring only a knife to a gunfight, say otherwise. Equip the Lightweight perk and swap to your knife, and your character is instantly transformed into a lightning-fast ninja. Throw in Extreme Conditioning to make him even more superhuman and, with a little practice, you can run around the battlefield stabbing fools like Sho Kosugi on PEDs. That's if you're feeling kind. If you really wanted to rack up a ridiculous score, as I have seen many do, give old Sho a submachine gun with a laser sight for fast and convenient hip-firing accuracy.

Damned Ninjas

It's really more of an exploit, and it's a shame, because there's a terrific mix of open maps, like the Chinese aircraft carrier set Carrier, and more close-quarters battlegrounds, like luxury super yacht Hijacked, and Lightweight ninjas with submachine guns feel overpowered on all 15 of them.

Multi-Team is another mini-squad system that encourages players to work together.

At least in Black Ops 2's standard Core modes. There's so much that's been added to CoD over the years, much of it feels like it was designed for a group of players with specific complaints, including mine. The Hardcore game types, for example, limit the HUD, take away health regeneration, make bullets more powerful, and are a terrific escape for players looking for more challenging, serious, ninja-free shooting.

The list of features keeps on going. After being impressed by the two-man Fireteam system in Medal of Honor Warfighter (pretty much the only thing to be really impressive about that game), I was pleased to find that Black Ops 2's new mode, Multi-Team, is another mini-squad system that encourages players to work together with simple mechanics in a handful of modes, including Team Deathmatch, Kill Confirmed, and Headquarters. It doesn't offer the basic healing and resupplying that Fireteams do, but thanks to the frantic nature of the CoD multiplayer, it doesn't need them.

I've Got Your Back

From my first match in Multi-Team, players seemed to almost instantly recognize this was no place for lone wolves. Because there are four different teams, each with three players, it has the keep-your-head-on-a-swivel tension of Free for All, but with two men watching your back like a security blanket. Without a word of communication to one another (there is built-in VOIP for you noisy talkers out there), my squad navigated to a small room with a balcony, giving us a good view of the battlefield.

It pays to stick with the team. Plus, this just looks lonely.

There are 12 modes in all, and it's a mountain of content that can potentially keep a fan busy for a looong time.

One player guarded the door while I kept watch on the balcony and our third squad mate went back and forth between us, laying down fire on enemies as needed. It was fantastic fun and we racked up a healthy number of kills before another squad got wise and lobbed a few grenades into our den. It isn't always so sublime, though. I've also found myself in a handful Multi-Team matches where I might as well be on my own, and that can be brutally unforgiving.

There are 12 modes in all, and it's a mountain of content that can potentially keep a fan busy for a looong time (or at least until next November, when yet another CoD will inevitably arrive). And that's before you even get to Zombies.

You've Gotten to The Zombies

Yes, the undead-deadening modes are back in Black Ops 2, and this time around they're much more fleshed out (zing!) with enough maps and modes to make a standalone game. Not that Activision needs any ideas, but that actually looks like where Zombies is heading, particularly with its new mode/map collection, Green Run.

This time they're much more fleshed out (zing!).

Much like Left 4 Dead, Green Run puts co-op groups through one long, zombie-filled bus trip. I started at the Bus Depot and… well, I died at the Bus Depot. Now I'm trying to get through five large areas in all, culminating in the Town, and I'll probably get there eventually, but this undead shooter is tougher than ever, thanks in no small part to environmental hazards like lava that kills players and makes zombies explode... to kill players.

Not Easy Being Green

It's tough, but it's also fun, especially when playing with a friend like me who needs his life saved a lot. Fortunately for those of you playing online with randoms, you likely won't have to suffer through co-op with me, because Zombies includes a new matchmaking system that pairs players of similar skill together. So let's all be grateful for that.

Mind the burning, exploding zombies.

Zombies includes a new matchmaking system that pairs players of similar skill together.

While these are all fairly significant changes that're pleasingly out of character for an annualized franchise famous for producing steadily degrading copies of Modern Warfare (which is still the best of the series), make no mistake: this is still Call of Duty. It looks and feels like the shooter Infinity Ward created years ago, and in many ways, that's a disappointment. Where, for example, are my wrist-mounted grappling hooks from the single-player campaign? Opportunity missed. And of course, this remains one of the best digital places in the world to go to become teeth-grindingly frustrated. But Black Ops 2 is also the most concerted effort yet to convince players to grow their wolf packs through some good old-fashioned team play, and in many ways it succeeds. It not only gives Call of Duty multiplayer fans their annual dose, but actually makes it better.

Love'em or hate'em, it just wouldn't be November without a Call of Duty, would it? How many of you guys out there have played all eight PC Call of Duty games? (Treyarch's first, CoD3, never made it to PC.) Let's have your opinions: rank them in order from best to worst.